FIG. 1 (Prior Art) is a diagram of an interactive television system 100 that enhances a television viewing experience by integrating television programming with content from the Internet. The broadcast of a baseball game can, for example, be enhanced by retrieving relevant information (for example, a batter""s batting statistics 101) from the Internet and displaying that information at an appropriate point in the baseball game (for example, when the batter 102 is batting).
System 100 includes a server 103 maintained by the broadcaster, a broadcasting antenna 104, a receiver unit 105, a television set 106, and an Internet access point 107. Receiver unit 105 includes a receiving antenna 108 and a remote control unit 109. A viewer uses remote control unit 109 to control the receiver unit and/or to interact with interactive television content via the receiver unit. A video link 110 couples receiver unit 105 to television set 106 so that the receiver unit can use the television set as a display device.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of receiver unit 105. TV interface circuitry 111 of the receiver unit 105 includes a tuner that is tuned to receive the broadcast television video and to remove a television carrier signal. After the carrier signal is removed, TV interface circuitry 111 digitizes the resulting video signal. Software executed by a digital processor 112 receives the digitized signal from TV interface 111 and decodes and checks the digitized signal for errors. Receiver unit 105 drives the television set 106 via video encoder 113 and audio digital-to-analog converter 114. Digital processor 112 realizes a type of web browser that can access the Internet via a modem 115. Receiver unit 105 includes an infrared interface 116 for receiving infrared transmissions from remote control unit 109.
To enhance the baseball game by the display of batter statistics 101, television video 117 is broadcast over the airwaves from broadcasting antenna 104 to receiving antenna 108 of receiver unit 105. At an appropriate time in the baseball game when the broadcaster wishes batter statistics 101 to be displayed (for example, when batter 102 appears on the television screen), the broadcaster broadcasts a trigger 118 along with the television video 117. Trigger 118 contains a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that identifies an information resource 119 on the broadcaster""s server 103. In this case, information resource 119 is a web page containing the batter""s statistics.
Receiver unit 105 receives trigger 118, accesses the Internet via Internet access point 107, uses the URL from the trigger to retrieve the web page of batter statistics from server 103, and then displays the batter statistics 101. In this way, broadcasters use triggers to have their viewers"" receiver units retrieve information from the Internet and display that information in concert with their programming.
A service company may, for a fee, provide receiver units and Internet access to individual viewers. The service company may not be an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that maintains the Internet access point. Rather, the service company contracts with an ISP and then resells the Internet access to individual viewers. The service company may pay the ISP for the Internet activity of its viewers by the connect-hour. The service company therefore has an interest in controlling the magnitude of Internet accessing so that it can keep associated costs from exceeding the amount it bills its individual viewers.
As seen from the illustration of FIG. 1, a broadcaster that transmits an unduly large number of triggers could cause the service company to incur large charges from the ISP. A means of controlling such costs and inducing broadcasters to reimburse the service company for costs associated with their transmissions is desired.
In interactive television, information from an information resource may be displayed along with television video in a synchronized fashion. When information is to be displayed at a point in the television video, a trigger is broadcast along with the television video. The trigger identifies the information resource and indicates how information from the information resource is to be displayed. Some triggers are ignored in accordance with the invention whereas other such triggers are not ignored. When the receiver unit receives a trigger, the receiver unit determines whether a rule stored in the receiver unit applies to the trigger. If the rule applies, then the receiver unit takes a predetermined action. If the rule does not apply, then the rule has no effect and the trigger is acted upon by the receiver unit in normal fashion (a default trigger handling condition). In one embodiment, the predetermined action is to ignore the trigger. By including one or more such rules in a receiver unit, the receiver unit is made to ignore certain specific types of triggers but not to ignore other types of triggers. The rules can be automatically loaded into the receiver unit on power-up by broadcast communication over the airwaves, from a permanent storage device (coupled to or a part of) the receiver unit, or by downloading from the Internet. The rules can be updated periodically.
A service company can cause receiver units to ignore certain types of triggers by causing the receiver units to load particular lists of rules. Accordingly, triggers from a particular broadcaster that does not reimburse the service company for costs associated with supporting the triggers can be disabled. It is therefore believed that a service company""s capability to disable particular triggers may help induce broadcasters to reimburse service companies for Internet access costs associated with supporting the broadcaster""s triggers.
Other methods and structures are disclosed in the detailed description below. This summary does not purport to define the invention. The invention is defined by the claims.